Division I NCAA hockey was instituted in 1948.
(Division I NCAA hockey titles, 1948 to 2015-16/ 69 titles.)
The inclusion of Penn State as a D1-hockey team led to the 2011-2013-era realignment in D1-hockey. The shakeup in D1-hockey conferences occurred in much the same way (and in nearly the same time-period) as the recent realignments in NCAA D1-football and in NCAA D1-basketball. After the dust had settled in D1-hockey, there was 6 conferences instead of 5, and one conference was dissolved – the Central Collegiate Hockey Associaition (CCHA). (The CCHA existed as a D1-hockey conference from 1973-2013; the two teams which left the CCHA to join the brand-new NCHC are listed two paragraphs below.) (Note: there is one Independent D1-hockey team, Arizona State.)

The location-map here shows the twelve-team ECAC hockey conference…
Formed in 1961-62, the ECAC D1-hockey conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. The ECAC was the only D1 men’s hockey conference that remained unchanged during the major conference realignment in 2011 and 2012.

The ECAC has teams spread through 6 states in the Northeast and in New England…6 teams from New York (Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union College), 2 teams from Connecticut (Quinnipiac and Yale), 1 team from Massachusetts (Harvard), 1 team from Rhode Island (Brown), 1 team from New Hampshire (Dartmouth), and 1 team from New Jersey (Princeton). (There are 6 Ivy League teams in the ECAC: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale. The Ivy League does not have a D1-hockey conference, but each season the best-finisher of the 6 wins the Ivy League D1-hockey title.)

There are 5 distinct two-team clusters in the ECAC. Two teams are located in Central New York, situated 55 miles apart: Colgate (of Hamilton, NY) and Cornell (of Ithaca , NY). Two teams are located in the St. Lawrence Seaway area of Northern New York, situated 10 miles apart: Clarkson (of Potsdam, NY) and St. Lawrence (of Canton, NY). Two teams are located in the Capital/Tri-Cities region of New York, situated 14 miles apart: Rensselaer (of Troy, NY) and Union College (of Schenectady, NY). Two teams are located in south-eastern New England, situated 41 miles apart: Brown (of Providence, RI) and Harvard (of Cambridge, MA). And two teams are located in south-central Connecticut, situated just 5 miles apart: Quinnipiac (of Hamden, CT) and Yale (of New Haven, CT).

The map…
The map is based on my recently-posted 60-team NCAA D1-hockey location-map {see it here}. The 12 ECAC teams’ crests, colors and locations are shown on the map. Each team’s color-circle, which radiates out from their location-dot, is sized to represent average attendance…the larger the circle, the higher the team’s average attendance. Crowd-size-rank within the 60-team-D1 is also noted – by the number next to the team-name on the map and on the attendance-list. (North Dakota is the highest-drawing D1-hockey team, currently.)

The chart at the right side of the map page shows attendance data. Along with average attendances of the 12 ECAC teams (2015-16 home regular season figures), arena sizes and percent-capacities are listed. Also shown, below the attendance data, is a list showing all D1-hockey titles which have been won by teams that currently play in the conference (in this case, all titles won by teams in the ECAC). Finally, at the lower-right of the map-page is a chart showing all D1-hockey teams’ titles and Frozen Four appearances (39 of the 60 D1-hockey teams). (Michigan has the most D1-hockey titles, but the Wolverines have not won a hockey title in eighteen years (last in 1998); meanwhile, with North Dakota winning the title last season (2015-16), they have moved past Denver up to second-most D1-hockey titles, with 8. The D1-hockey team with the most Frozen Four appearances is the Boston College Eagles, with 25.)

Five ECAC teams have won D1-hockey titles.
The Rensselaer Engineers of Troy, NY were champions in 1954, and then three decades later, in 1985, RPI won their second title. The Cornell Big Red, of Ithaca, NY, won two D1-hockey titles in a four-year span, in 1967 and in 1970. The Harvard Crimson, of Cambridge, MA, won the 1989 D1-hockey title. And the Yale Bulldogs, of New Haven, CT, were recently D1-hockey champions, in 2013. The 2013 D1-hockey final was contested between two ECAC teams, with Yale defeating nearby rivals Quinnipiac 4-0. And then the following year (2014), the tiny Union College Dutchmen (with about 2,100 undergraduates), won the D1-hockey title…without even having one scholarship player. That, to me, sums up the beauty of D1-hockey. Where minnows can run rampant.

The most recent Frozen Four appearance by an ECAC team was by Quinnipiac in 2016. Overall, Harvard boasts the most Frozen Four appearances by an ECAC team, with 12 (but none since 1994). 11 of the 12 ECAC teams have made it to a Frozen Four, with the exception being Princeton. Last season three ECAC teams qualified for the 16-team D1-hockey tournament – Quinnipiac, Yale, and Harvard.
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Thanks to all at the following links…
-Thanks to AMK1211 for blank map of USA, ‘File:Blank US Map with borders.svg”>File:Blank US Map with borders.svg‘ (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Thanks to Two Hearted River at en.wikipedia.org/[each teams' page at Wikipedia], for small segments of jersey illustrations of several teams (Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth, Cornell, Maine, Minnesota State, Vermont, Yale, UMass, Western Michigan, Canisius College, American International), such as at File:ECAC-Uniform-Cornell.png.
-Thanks to USCHO site for attendance data, Men’s Division I Hockey Attendance: 2015-2016 (uscho.com).
-Thanks to Distance From To site.
-Thanks to FreePik.com (free photo vectors) at freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/shield, for shield-template to make Harvard VE-RI-TAS hockey jersey shoulder-patch-logo.